"Deer to be [s]een in every direction and their tracks ar[e] as plenty as hogs about a farm."- from Stephen E. Ambrose's Undaunted Courage

Before Europeans settled in Illinois, animals such as bison and elk roamed the prairie, but shortly after A.D. 1800 disappeared from the state because they were over-hunted and their habitat was turned into farmland.

The mammals that live in or around Illinois prairies today are those that have successfully adapted to changes in their habitat. Some of them live in the remnants of what used to be large prairies. Others have adapted to open farmland settings. Read about a few of the mammals that live or lived on the Illinois prairie.